The name is big, the class is currently rather small: Manchester United travels to FC Bayern in the Champions League with a few problems in their luggage.
Bruno Fernandes had a good time in the national team: with Portugal, the game designer achieved a 1-0 away win in Slovakia last week, after which the strong Portuguese shot Luxembourg out of the stadium 9-0. That was nice for the 29-year-old. But then he had to go back to his club: Manchester United.
Ranked 13th in the league
And immediately the good mood was gone again: Fernandes and his club lost 3-1 to Brighton and Hove Albion at Old Trafford at the weekend. Man United’s false start in the league was perfect. The team led by coach Erik ten Hag has now scored just six points from the first five games. The team is ranked 13th in the Premier League.
Things are not going well for the club that Owen Hargreaves claimed this week to have greater global appeal than, for example, FC Bayern Munich. “Bayern is a huge club, but when I’m traveling anywhere in the world and people talk to me about football, they’re mostly United fans. The English clubs have a greater reach thanks to the global marketing of the Premier League. This gives United even more internationally,” said the 42-year-old, who once played for both Bayern and United.
Players out of form, scandals disrupt the process
But what is currently going on with the Red Devils? Players are out of shape, transfers haven’t worked, the squad is overpriced, and off the pitch one scandal follows another. Ten Hag doesn’t have an easy job on the island right now. The Dutchman, who coached Munich’s second team from 2013 to 2015, is currently going through a lot. All under the ever-present eyes of Sir Alex Ferguson, whose successors all have to contend with this great shadow.
New signing Rasmus Höjlund (cost a whopping 75 million euros) has been a flop so far, his representative at the top, Anthony Martial, still seems strange and is now being whistled almost symbolically by his own fans.
Bearers of hope Marcus Rashford
The only one who really seems to be working offensively alongside Bruno Fernandes at the moment is Marcus Rashford. The club’s 25-year-old homegrown player has really gotten going again after a low last year and is posing problems for the opposing ranks with his enormous speed.
In addition to what is happening on the pitch, the club is still being bothered by a number of scandals: national player Mason Greenwood, who was not allowed to play for a year and a half because of rape allegations, was just able to be loaned out to Getafe shortly before the transfer deadline. The Brazilian super talent Antony (cost around 95 million euros in 2022) was accused of abuse and is currently neither in the national team nor in the club.
Sancho is no longer allowed to take part
And then there is the latest antics surrounding Jadon Sancho. The former BVB attacker has fallen out with ten Hag and is not allowed to train with the squad at the moment.
For Owen Hargreaves it is therefore clear: “I think everyone knows that Bayern are currently in better shape than Manchester. Bayern are already favorites at home, especially since they have strengthened themselves again with Harry Kane,” he said.
“Sometimes teams like this are dangerous”
Despite the current crisis, Man United remains “dangerous,” added Hargreaves: “Their offense is great. Last season, too, United had a few problems at the beginning and then put together a great series.”
Harry Kane also sees FC Bayern facing a difficult task for his new club: “I know that Manchester United is going through a difficult phase at the moment, but sometimes teams like that are dangerous because they are always looking to come back in a big way ” Kane said at Sports Illustrated. For Thomas Müller, United is still “an authority in world football”.
Remembering 1999
However: “This is an absolute classic, there have been many big games between these teams,” emphasized Bayern’s sporting director Christoph Freund. The balance sheet speaks for the people of Munich. But the “mother of all defeats” in the final against the traditional English club in 1999, when all dreams were shattered in 102 seconds (1:2), remains unforgettable.